Quite A Couple
by 13HoursInWonderland
Summary: Though his brain insisted it would be better if he didn't Mordecai's gaze wondered, intent on clarifying ambiance for itself. When his stare went from the glow of Lilith's eyes to the subtleness of her curves he couldn't find it in him to doubt heat snaking below his breast, steadily moving southwards. Internally he swore. No. Not Lilith. For heavens sake not Lilith and not now.
1. Feelings and Shit

Something had changed between the assassin and the siren; development so visibly subtle that anyone with less trained eyes probably wouldn't have noticed. But if Mordecai stood back and watched the two from a distance, there was no mistaking, something very new had evolved in Maya and Zer0's relationship. It was apparent in the way her hips swayed just a little bit more when he was in the room. Or how his voice became smoother when uttering a haiku in her direction. The brief, everyday physical exchanges that had become more frequent.

"If those two aren't fucking now they will be soon." Mordecai had told Lilith between swigs of rakk ale, growing tired of watching pair grope each other in the shadows. "Can't imagine how though, if the guy never takes that helmet off."

"Um hmm."

With a raised eyebrow the hunter lowered his bottle at numb reply. He didn't like the way she'd mumbled at him. How her fingers were fidgeting with one of Tina's bunker figures' that had been lost and recently found. The look of her eyes, unfocused and hazy, as miniature commando statuette twisted in her hand wasn't to Mordecai's liking either. "Lily? You alive over there?"

"Uh hu."

"Your not really looking it." The fiery siren, whom always had something smart to say, tilted her head in what could have been a passive response or a sign that she had toned him out. At this Mordecai put down his drink, initial confusion delving into something more serious. In all the time he had known Lilith she had never responded to anything with indifference or ostracism. Not when making a fuss was so much more satisfying.

Stretching to his feet it only took a few strides to reach her position at the other side of the crimson raiders war room and a well timed maneuver to remove toy from Lilith's grasp. "Think I'll drop this off at Tina's workshop before heading home. Have to pass the place anyway."

With figure out of her hands Lilith acknowledged him; her eyes large as if she'd just remembered she wasn't alone. "What?"

"Tina's toy. I'll take it back to her. Unless you two want some alone time before I walk him home."

As if jab had set their normal flow back into motion Lilith scowled at him. A tsk sparked off her tongue. "Screw you."

"That's more like it." The hunter's lips curved at curse, glad to see he hadn't lost the Lil Pandora awed and feared. "In all sincerity though, you alright after yesterday's game? Tina made a lot of references and I know I'd feel pretty screwed up."

For a moment Mordecai regretted asking; more fog beginning to dilute Lilith's golden eyes. The vision was short lived however. A familiar spunk lacing the siren's following words.

"I don't need a pep talk if that's what you think. If you're desperate for some girl talk I hear Tina and Gaige are planning a slumber party."

"Just concerned is all. I lost someone too and it feels like a thousand and one shits doesn't it?"

"Huh, thanks for the pity but you really don't need to play the 'I know what you're going through' card.' Will probably only piss me off."

"Wasn't planning on it. Neither was I going to tell you it gets better because I know you wont believe me. What you will do is drudge on cause, Roland would never have been with you in the first place if you weren't bad ass enough to tough shit out."

At fist Lilith didn't say anything, do anything, not even look like anything. Then a wickedly solemn smile lit up her face. She laughed and Mordecai lit it slide because similarly morbid hues had overtaken him not so long ago.

"We make quite a couple don't we?"

"Speaking of couples, now that your actually paying attention, have I got something to tell you." He met her amusement with a chuckle, but the sound dyed before it could reach its hight. A sensation Mordecai knew well abruptly striking his chest. Realization dawned on the hunter, making him feel as if he'd be run down by a gunner going at full speed.

Though his brain insisted it would be better if he didn't Mordecai's gaze wondered, intent on clarifying ambiance for itself. When his stare went from the glow of Lilith's eyes to the subtleness of her curves Mordecai couldn't find it in him to doubt heat snaking below his breast, steadily moving southwards. Internally he swore. No. Not Lilith. For fucks sake not Lilith and not now.

Just as the hunter was trying to fathom an excuse to distance himself from new found discomfort before he did or said something stupid, like Mordecai often seemed to do when it came to crap like feels, a distraction presented itself for him.

Pandora's other surviving siren and the assassin stumbled onto second floor landing just outside war room's doorway. Maya was quick to ketch sight of turning heads and stepped an appropriate distance away from her companion; untangled her hands from Zer0's belt as she did so. "H-hey guys. What are you doing up here? I though everyone one had plans for the evening."

Though the two put on a good nonchalant performance Lilith expression flexed with understanding before it perked with amusement. As she smirked at pair with a catty sentence brewing behind her eye the hunter excused himself and fled for Tundra Express.

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Never written from a guys pov before so I hope I don't screw this up. I'm a bit more content with this over the other Borderlands fics I've written though... Just a bit. Anyway thankies for reading a please review!


	2. Girl Talk

Mordecai could be considered a smart man. He knew how to keep himself alive, even on a planet like Pandora. He could find game in the most barren slopes of the badlands. He had spent years perfecting his talents, calculating just what was needed to make the perfect shot. Despite all this, however, he was beginning to frustrate Lilith's temper, and that was both idiotic and dangerous. The siren had burnt lesser men alive for crossing her, and doing the same to the hunter was beginning to sound appealing.

It had been over ten days since Mordecai had last made contact with Sanctuary, two weeks since his most recent visit to the city, and even longer since he bothered to answer any of Lilith's echoes. While normally such aloofness wouldn't have bothered the siren so much, (It wasn't unheard of for the hunter to disappear every once and a while; often looking into something curious he'd caught sight or sound of) keeping Sanctuary running had begun to wear on her already short fuses.

So, when Lilith noticed Maya and Axton wandering into Moxxi's bar one afternoon she followed, with every intention of hiring someone that could tear the hunter apart on her behalf.

"I got a job for you." Lilith greeted her fellow siren as she slipped into a empty barstool next to her. "Mordecai hasn't been answering his echo device and I need to make sure he hasn't finally drunk himself to death. Or worse. "

Initially the younger siren didn't answer, an odd light flickering in her eyes as she simply stared into a glass of booze for a few awkward second. Just as Lilith moved to repeat herself, (for maybe her meaning had been misheard from the bar's over-powering music) Maya replied.

"I'm not exactly the best person suited for that job. Wouldn't know how to scale that tower of his."

"How about your boyfriend then? Know were I can find him? He seems like the flexible type."

"You can echo him, but I doubt you'll get an immediate reply. Hammerlock lured him and most of the team away with promises of a weekend hunted down exotic creatures on Aegrus," Maya spoke with a chilly hushness.

Her features took on a weary sharpness as she momentarily shifted her gaze to the commando who was chatting up a heavily clothed, yet curvy woman a few seats down . "And if you don't mind, I haven't exactly told everyone I've got myself a boyfriend yet. The information isn't exactly a secret, but I think for now the fewer that know the better. Not everyone in Sanctuary is above saying something stupid about my taste in men, and my taste in men isn't the type to hold back in retaliation."

"Right. What about you soldier boy?" Lilith sighed leaning back to talk around Maya and at the commando. His seat had become vacant however, the ex-soldier and his lady friend no where in sight.

"If you're concerned, why not go check up on Mordecai yourself?" Maya inquiry followed an aggravated curse that had hissed from her fellow siren.

"I'd rather not leave Sanctuary right now, especially not after that recent black out. Scooter still can't tell me what exactly happened and I wouldn't want to be away if something more serious than the lights broke down." Again a mischievous look flashed in the younger siren's eyes. Her lips parting and snapping shut as if she had just swallowed a sharp word.

"Know something I don't?"

Maya looked up from her drink, giving Lilith a better view of sinful gleam in her silver irises. Before speaking she gave the room a once over, as if trying to determine whether what had to be said was appropriate for Moxxi's bar.

"I don't _know_ anything," Maya shrugged innocently, "but I have _heard_ gossip. Rumors. A few curious whispers that could, or could not be fact. Nothing I really need to worry you about."

"Not your call to make, killer. Either you let me in on these rumors or I phase you into Eiridium Blight's volcano."

"Fine." Though Maya's tone was dishearten when she spoke a tiny grin pulled at her lips. Her eyes still shimmering. "He's interested."

"What?" Tension that had been kneading at Lilith's brain melted, quickly replaced with a tingling sensation that only twisted strained features more.

"He's interested." Maya repeated with another shrug, "Physically. Could be emotionally interested as well."

"Mordecai? Interested?" Lilith found herself snorting. "You trying to be funny killer?"

"You know as well as I do practically every guy on this planet has had fantasies about a siren or two and you don't think Mordecai could be one of them? "

"I'm not his type."

"Hot isn't his type? Honestly Lilith, you believe after all this time, between every fuck we've been handed, he hasn't once stolen a look? Wondered what a night with you would be like?"

"Why would he? We've screwed around before."

Maya turned fully away from her alcohol at that, an icy eyebrow raised in question.

"Long time back." While Lilith's eyes rolled at the alarm in her junior's expression a mild heat tickled her skin at the memory of night. "One night thing. Before the first vault opened."

"Listen." Maya began, her gaze locking with Lilith's as if ready to challenge the other woman to a duel. "I don't know shit about your relationship with the hunter and it's really not my business, but if Mordecai is perfectly fine out their in the Tundra you should figure out why he's gone AWOL. Head out there. I can keep a watch on things around here for an hour or two."

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Going to blame the slow update on the same things that delayed the Namesake story ( AnimeIowa, moving, finishing cosplays, no Internet for two weeks). My apologies for life being so demanding. Also, I know this isn't the most exciting of chapters but going straight from point A to point B didn't feel like it flowed right, thus this. As always thankies for reading and please review!

(P.S. my beta recommended I try switching between Mordecai's and Lilith point of view every chapter. If this takes away from the story at all (or maybe adds to it?) let me know and I'll figure something out.)


	3. Threats Are Always The Answer

Five years ago, before they had opened the vault, before Lilith and Roland became an item, and before much of anything had happened, the hunter had gotten drunk while the siren became tipsy. With a bottle of rakk ale in one hand and a bar dart in the other, Mordecai had taunted the siren's aim. "You throw like a little girl."

"Oh, I'm all woman," she'd been sassy, if not steady, "too bad you're not man enough to find out."

Not seven minutes later, after a few more inebriated jabs quickly deteriorated into drunken flirting, Mordecai had his tongue in Lilith's mouth. Within ten minutes the pair had rented a room. Five minutes after that, the hunter was in her pants and remained there until morning had sobered both of them.

The incident had been isolated and mostly insignificant. For the better part of their relations, before and after that alcoholic night together, Lilith had been nothing more then a companion in Mordecai's eyes. A teammate and, depending on the day, a friend. They'd gotten off Marcus's rundown bus together, taken down skags, crimson lance soldiers and the vault monster as if these were things bros did on the weekends. Mordecai recalled how the siren's body had begun to flow with even more contentment and confidence when she and Roland hooked up. Remember a not so far passed day when he'd hesitantly explain to Lilith that Bloodwing was a girl. (A fact he'd only realized when she'd laid an egg.)And now, Mordecai was fighting very hard to ignore how his mind kept reliving that isolated, mostly insignificant incident before much of anything had happened.

With a dissatisfied grunt the hunter uncorked a fresh bottle of rakk ale. He was brooding, which meant he hadn't had enough to drink. In one shot Mordecaidowned a third of glass container and would have managed more, that is if the drink hadn't been yanked from his hand.

"That's enough ass-hat," Lilith phased into existence in front of the hunter with a cloud of light. Her hands snatched at the rakk ale and tossed the unfinished bottle off Mordeci's Tundra tower (a movement he would have considered graceful if not for the fact that that was his last bottle). "I'm not here to watch you get drunk."

"As honored as I am to see you and all-" The hunter grumbled, holding back a hiss of frustration. The last thing he needed was an unannounced visit from Lilith. Not when both his mind and chest were numb with something more than alcohol. "-I don't really want you here. Besides, last I checked, Sanctuary needs you running it."

"The city isn't going to implode if I leave for an hour and you've been avoiding your echo device. Mind telling me why that is?"

"You couldn't have sent one of the vault hunters to ask?" The hunter inquired as he rolled his eyes.

"Answer the question or do I have to get siren on your ass?"

Heaving a sigh Mordecai messaged a tense shoulder, hoping gesture would grant him a moment to think before Lilith pulled a elemental weapon on him. What was he suppose to say? Seeing you so messed up the other day had been hot? Not exactly wise words to direct at a siren, or any woman really. As he braved a glance at her face, her tight jaw and narrowed eyes told him Lilith's patience was running dangerously thin.

"It's should be about ready to pop." The hunted settled on a half truth. He nodded past Lilith, towards Bloodwing's unhatched egg, which was swaddled in a cooler adapted for incubation. "I want to be here when it happens."

At fist it looked as if Lilith would accept his excuse. Her hard features eased, the impatience relaxed from her muscles. Then a spark flashed across her sharp features, hell coming back to her face with a vengeance. Her eyes aflame.

"You want to be here when it happens. Sure, I'll believe that. What I won't believe is that you'll be getting yourself wasted at the time. So let's try this again old man, and if I think you're lying to me, I'll phase you into the warrior's lava pit without a second thought."

Mordecai considered for a moment to try to convince the siren that his aloofness wasn't important, that what had caused him to keep his distance from Sanctuary, and from her, for so long was of minor value. Yet, the growing fire in Lilith's eyes told Mordecai that he'd already wasted away what little tolerance she'd arrived with.

"If I tell you-" the hunter started warily "-you're going to do something unholy to me with those siren powers of yours _and then_ I'll be forced to shoot a few rounds in your direction _and_ _then_ nothing will be pretty if the two of us try to kill each other. So, forgive an old man for being hesitant." Growling, the hunter swaggered to his feet in a feeble hope that his greater stature might, for once, dishearten Lilith. However, she was swift to reply with her posture and tone unmoved.

"You know," Lilith took a turn at rolling her eyes "if you don't talk to me, that's probably what's going to happen regardless."

"How about this? Come back with some booze, then we'll talk. If I'm going to tell you what's been eating at me, I'd _like_ to be so hammered I won't remember it. Besides, I'm an even better shot drunk and knowing your temper, I might need that advantage to defend myself."

"We'll talk now, then you can get yourself drunk." Lilith snapped, crossing her arms and swaying her hips in annoyance. And while he _knew_ the posture was meant to be intimidating (which in a way it was), the hunter had to school himself against admiring how her tattered shirt constricted where her arms folded below her breasts, and bunching below her waist to expose a delightfully tattooed hip.

"Lily-"

"You know I once melted a guy just because he grabbed me the wrong way."

"Fine!" Mordecai managed to hold back a groan as he struggled to keep his thoughts from taking the siren's last sentence and running down the wrong road with it. "You really want to know that badly I'll tell you! I haven't been answering echos cause I've been to busy thinking."

"Thinking?" Lilith repeated, looking unsatisfied.

"About you and what happened after Tina's bunker game."

"Is that i-"

"I've also been thinking about that night we had all those years back; about how if things might have played out differently, you know, it could have been you and me instead of you and Roland." Though he wasn't the most colorful man when it came to words, Mordecai could still see his meaning was getting across.

Lilith's mouth slightly parting in a 'I'm thinking' sort of way. Her features briefly knitting before realization crept onto her face, "Fuck me."

"What?"

"Just- never mind." The siren waved a limp hand as the opposite went to kneed her forehead once, twice, thrice, before she spoke again. "You- you've really been avoiding me because- you've got a crush on me?"

"I wouldn't phrase it _quite_ like that, but sure. Close enough."

Like the calm that came before badland dust storms, a few eerily still seconds passed between them, only to be broken by Lilith's laughter.

"What are you snorting at?" Mordecai couldn't stop the retort even though his brain knew that his snappy nature could only make this awkward situation worse. Luckily for him, the hunter's tone was overlooked as Lilith continued to chuckle.

"Any other guy with desires for a siren would be blowing stuff up to get her attention. But not you old man! You've been going out of your way to hide from the siren you've got a thing for!"

"Would it make you feel better it I blew stuff up? 'Cause if it means you won't phase shift me into a lava pit, I'll blow a badass varkid's head clean-off from here."

As her laughter finally calmed down the serious tone returned to Lilith's voice, "Listen, Mordecai, you _can't_ just go AWOL because you just realized I'm hot."

"Yeah, well... sorry if I thought disappearing for a few weeks was preferable to you catching me gawking."

"As long as you don't do something stupid, like rebuild the Cult of the Firehawk, I couldn't give a shit about what goes on inside your head, as long as it stays there. What I'm more concerned about right now is if you're going to keep pulling this avoiding-your-echo-device bull! Can I count on an answer the next time I call?"

Mordecai knew he couldn't avoid Lilith for the rest of his life. There was no point in throwing what relationship they had away because he wasn't the most skilled with emotions. Neither did he want to see an end to his involvement with the siren. She was a fierce ally and pretty damn trustworthy compared to the majority of Pandora's population. Even if she never once looked at him like she had that one almost insignificant night, having Lilith's back was better then not having her at all.

"You know, I wasn't lying about Blood's egg. Give me till it hatches. I'm not making any promises, but I should have some sense back in my skull in a few days time. "

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Contrary to popular belief I have not given up on my stories. Just had life to worry about for a while (also my beta took her time in getting my most recent chapters edited) anyways enjoy and please review!


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